Brothers
by QueenAurora
Summary: "There's... something I need to tell you," he said, and Hiccup frowned. "Okay..." he said, a little unsure of what else to say. "I have another brother..." Wrenlou started, then he adverted his gaze to the ground, "I... eh... oh forget it, let's just go in. Just... don't freak out okay?" AU of TAAOFHAW


_First of all, if you haven't read my Return of the Dragon Rider or The Adventurous Adventures of Hiccup and Wrenlou, this will make no sense to you. Read those first, or be confused. These stories can be found on my profile._

 _So the idea for this one-shot is that basically, I wanted to write a scene where Hiccup meets Josh, Wrenlou's twin. Since Josh is dead in TAAOFHAW, this is no part of that AU. I might make a few more chapters, but for now this remains a one-shot, although I do have ideas for other parts of TAAOFHAW where Josh can play a role. In this, he's not a dragon rider. This is a take on the scene from Becoming Friends, where Hiccup meets Wrenlou's parents and sister. Here, he also meets Josh._

 _Enjoy!_

 **Brothers**

Wrenlou raised his hand to knock as Hiccup glanced around the garden. The entire place radiated a feeling of peace, calm and he found that he relaxed the moment he had set foot onto the property. He stared at the fountain, the rush of water mixing with the chirping of birds, and he sighed. He could stay her forever. A slight feeling of envy crawled into his heart. Wrenlou had been raised in an amazing place, on a wonderful, warm island. He had learned that dragons weren't dangerous animals, but could be trained, that they would be a loyal partner for the rest of your, and their life. He had been born on a barren rock, raised in a village where every one hated him for what he was. He turned back to Wrenlou when the boy spoke to him, his voice shaking slightly.

"There's... something I need to tell you," he said, and Hiccup frowned.

"Okay..." he said, a little unsure of what else to say.

"I have another brother..." Wrenlou started, then he adverted his gaze to the ground, "I... eh... oh forget it, let's just go in. Just... don't freak out okay?"

Hiccup nodded and Wrenlou opened the door, not even bothering to knock, and invited Hiccup into the hallway. There were statues on either side, lining the hallway, and Hiccup regarded them a little wary, feeling small next to the large stone men.

"Don't mind my ancestors," Wrenlou said, "they're always grumpy. I never liked them as a kid. They scared me."

Looking up to the stone faces, Hiccup couldn't do anything else but agree. The men had an expression which could be called 'stern', but they also looked angry, and some seemed to have a stare that went straight into his soul. He quickened up his pace and joined Wrenlou, following him closely until they came to another door. After stepping through, they were in another hallway, one without statues and with a beautiful mosaic on the ground. It didn't depict anything, the shapes were more abstract than figurative and he was quickly lost in the swirling blue and green lines on the ground. He was broken from his trance when the voice of a young boy rang through the house. Wrenlou stopped walking and glanced back at Hiccup, smiling weakly.

"Josh...?" he called out hesitantly.

Immediately there were rapid footsteps that indicated someone was running towards them, and a door at the end of the hall flew open. Hiccup looked up and froze. The boy at the end of the hallway was almost an exact copy of the one standing next to him. His black hair seemed a little less unruly, and even from the distance he could see that this boys eyes were both green, but the shape of his face was almost identical to Wrenlou's. The most striking difference however was, that this second boy was missing his entire right arm.

"Wrenlou!" the boy shrieked and he ran forward so fast that when he bumped into his brother, they both fell to the ground, Wrenlou eventually ending on his back on the floor, his brother sitting on his chest.

Wrenlou pushed the boy from his chest and he landed on the ground with a thud. He was back on his feet in seconds, just as Wrenlou wrapped his arms around him and took him in a bone crushing hug.

"Josh!" he exclaimed, "I missed you..."

Josh pulled away from his brother, his eyes sparkling in much the same way as Wrenlou's, resting his hand on his shoulder.

"I missed you too!" he smiled, hardly able to contain his happiness, "what are you doing here? You're supposed to be at the Bay! Do they even know you're here?"

Wrenlou nodded and gestured to Hiccup. "I was just showing him around. Josh, this is Hiccup. Hiccup, meet Josh. As you might have guessed... well, we're twins."

Hiccup nodded wordlessly, staring from one to the other. Despite some of the obvious differences, Josh missing an arm and having two green eyes, the two boys were nearly identical. Their faces had the same shape, they had the same built, lanky but muscular, but Josh was just a bit taller, no more than half an inch.

Josh smiled widely and stuck out his hand, his left. Hiccup took it and shook it, a smile spreading on his own face.

"Nice to meet you," Josh said, in Norse and Hiccup's eyes widened.

Wrenlou frowned at his brother. "When did you learn Norse?" he asked crossing his arms.

Josh let go of Hiccup's hand and ruffled Wrenlou's hair, spiking the black locks even more. "When I heard about you finding a castaway, and him being Norse, I knew you'd eventually bring him here. So I had dad teach me some. How did you learn it?"

"I read books," Wrenlou simply stated, and Josh burst out in laughter.

"Always the nerd!" he laughed and he turned to Hiccup again, "come! Let me show you around."

As the two boys led him through the house, showing him the garden, the dinner area, the living room and some other things, Hiccup began to notice more and more differences. Although Wrenlou and Josh were nearly identical in appearance, even their voices practically sounding the same, their characters couldn't be further apart. Where Wrenlou had been cheerful and energetic, Josh was a bubbling ball of energy, and nothing seemed to be able to stem the waterfall of words that kept pouring from his mouth. He talked excitedly about many different things, varying from how lonely he had been the past years without his brother, to how much he hated plumbs.

He found that he kept staring at the boys shoulder, where instead of an arm, there was nothing. He wondered how it had happened. He had heard some things from Wrenlou about riders losing limbs, but Josh wasn't a rider. So what then had happened? Had he encountered a wild dragon at one point that had mauled him? Had he been in an accident? Josh himself didn't seem bothered by the missing limb at all and appeared very well adapted to life without it, which led him to wonder _when_ he had lost it.

After an extensive tour of the house that ended in the boy's bedroom, Wrenlou sat down on one of the beds and sighed, looking around the room. Hiccup stayed in the doorway and did the same, feeling a little awkward as he felt he had intruded in a special bond between brothers. The room they were in was relatively small, windows on two sides as it was situated in a corner of the house. There were two beds not far apart, the left, which Wrenlou was now sitting on, was clearly not used in a while. There were a number of bows on the wall above it, varying in size. There was a bookcase with a ton of books that all showed signs of being well read, and Hiccup realized that Josh must like books just as much, or even more, as Wrenlou.

Josh plopped down on the other bed and looked at Hiccup, still standing in the doorway unsure of what to do. He gestured to the bed and Hiccup walked over, but sat down next to Wrenlou instead. He felt his eyes drawn to the right side of Josh's body, to the place where his right arm should be attached to his body, but wasn't. Josh caught him staring and glanced at his side, then looked back to Hiccup, who had quickly adverted his gaze to the ground.

"You wonder what happened, don't you," Josh asked and Hiccup nodded shyly.

"It's not what you think..." Josh started, "I wasn't attacked by a dragon or anything. It wasn't some stupid accident, although that would have been possible..."

The boy's voice trailed off and Hiccup stared at the ground again. For a while the room was silent, then Josh spoke again.

"It... it was a disease," he said, his voice soft, and when Hiccup looked up he saw tears shine in the eyes of the boy across from him, "it... started in my wrist. We thought it was a bee sting, or a bug bite and thought that it would go away. But it didn't and it had to be amputated. Just below my elbow. W.. we..."

He stopped, a few tears slipping down his cheeks and Hiccup realized that although Josh seemed to have accepted his faith and the loss of his arm, he still struggled with it daily. Wrenlou stood up, sitting down next to his brother and pulling him into an embrace.

"We though that was the end of it," Wrenlou continued, "but it came back..."

"In my shoulder," Josh finished the sentence, "and that's when they decided to... remove the rest of my arm... It hasn't been easy adapting, but it's been gone ever since. It's been five years..."

Hiccup adverted his gaze again, staring out the window. He had only ever known of people losing their limbs because of dragons, like Gobber, or dragon related injuries that became infected. He had never before heard from some one losing arms because of a disease that wasn't caused by wounds. Josh took a deep breath, wiping the tears from his face and he stood up.

"I don't want to cloud your visit with sob stories," he told Hiccup as he pulled a black case from the closet, "it happened, it's in the past and it can't be undone. I've adapted. One thing I miss most, is playing violin though."

Hiccup sat up at the word violin. He remembered the instrument from when he had first heard it in the Hall. The moment Josh opened the case, Hiccup's heart jumped up at seeing the shining instrument, the wood a warm brown and well maintained. Josh lifted the instrument from its velvet nest and handed it to Wrenlou, who took it a little hesitant.

"You know I haven't played in years right?" the black-haired boy asked, also taking the bow from his brother.

Josh shrugged, a gesture that looked strange with his one arm. "I took care of it. It's not like the strings will snap in your face. Just try it, you can't have forgotten everything."

"Alright," Wrenlou said, standing up and flexing his shoulders, "I suppose I'm not that rusty."

Hiccup stared at his friend in amazement. He knew Wrenlou could play the violin, he had mentioned it once before, but he never thought he would actually see it happen. He pulled his legs up, crossing them on the bed and looked at Wrenlou. He didn't see how Josh watched him closely, a small smile on his lips.

Wrenlou took a few steps away from the beds, to a more open space in the room. There he rolled his shoulders once, then settled the instrument on his left shoulder. He took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, then he closed his eyes. After a short moment he opened them again and raised the bow in what seemed like a salute. After one last deep breath, he started playing.

The song he had started was a happy one, one that invited to dance. Hiccup's smile grew wider and Josh was listening with his eyes closed. Somewhere in the back of his mind Hiccup registered the other boy across from him, but he was so focused on the soft tune of the violin, that he didn't fully realize he wasn't alone. Wrenlou ended all too soon, and Hiccup almost felt disappointed that it had ended. He stared up at Wrenlou, his eyes sparkling and the boy smiled at him.

"That was amazing..." Josh whispered and Hiccup jumped up as if he saw him for the first time, "I told you you would still be able to do it!"

Wrenlou nodded and sat down again, setting the instrument next to him on the bed. "My muscles are out of practice though," he said rubbing his shoulder, "man that hurts."

"When you play more, it'll go away," Josh laughed, "you know how unbelievably sore my arm was after the second operation and it had to do twice as much work."

"Yes..." Wrenlou said, "I remember. You wouldn't stop complaining."

"Yeah... I had you though. That made things better."

Wrenlou nodded, but before he could answer, the door opened and a man walked in.

"Josh? Did I just..." the man stopped the moment he saw Wrenlou sitting next to Josh, and a wide smile appeared on his face, "Wrenlou!"

"Dad!" Wrenlou practically shouted while he jumped from the bed and ran into the man's arms. The man lifted him from the ground, practically spinning him around.

The man was laughing when he let go of his son, resting his hands on his shoulders, looking down at him with a warm smile on his face. When he looked up he spotted Hiccup, and his smile grew even wider. He walked around Wrenlou towards the bed Hiccup was sitting. Hiccup looked up at him, the man clearly the father of the two boys, although he looked more like Broghan than Josh and Wrenlou.

"And you must be Hiccup," the man said in Norse with a heavy accent, "my name is Aaron."

Hiccup nodded a little surprised at the man speaking Norse, but then he remembered Josh had said his dad taught him some. And Wrenlou had told him that his father had been a trader, he could have learned the language on his travels.

"P...pleasure..." he stuttered as he shook the man's hand, and Aaron laughed.

"I have been to the land of Vikings," he said, "you don't look like one though... I think you were born to be here! Welcome, Hiccup, to Night Fury Island!"

"Thanks.." Hiccup mumbled, ignoring the sharp sting he had felt when the man had accused him of not looking like a Viking. He didn't know how he had been treated, he couldn't know about the insults. Besides, the man had a warm smile on his face when he had said it, so different from the cold hateful stares he was used to.

"Come!" Aaron said, turning to his sons, "let's go down. Your mother will be very happy to see you. Not to mention your sisters! Tell me, how's Broghan? Is he doing alright?"

While talking, Aaron ushered Wrenlou out of the room, seemingly forgetting about Josh and Hiccup. Josh glanced at Hiccup, pulling his face in a scowl, then he smiled.

"Come on, before he does something crazy," he said, gesturing to the door.

Hiccup nodded and while he started walking out of the room, he looked back at Josh. "Who would do something crazy?"

"Wrenlou!" Josh laughed, "he always finds a way to embarrass himself somehow."

"I haven't noticed..." Hiccup said softly, stopping at the end of the stairs, looking around the hallway.

"You don't know him like I do," Josh said, walking towards the left, "we've been together since birth. And this is the longest we've ever been apart in our entire life. It's difficult. I'm glad he's here now."

Hiccup smiled weakly as he followed Josh into the garden, towards a small circular plaza where Wrenlou was just released by a tall woman. Hiccup reasoned that it had to be Wrenlou's mother, because when he saw them next to each other, he could see the resemblance. She introduced herself as Helen, and she gave him a warm smile before she pulled him into a hug and held him against her chest. He closed his eyes, for a moment imagining it was his own mother that was hugging him. When she pulled away, he almost whined, unwilling to let go, but he slipped from her arms and sat down next to Wrenlou.

Over the next hour they talked and talked, both Wrenlou and Josh regularly alternating between languages to include Hiccup in the conversation, and soon the three boys were in a conversation of their own, seemingly forgetting about the other people at the table. While he was talking, Hiccup observed both Wrenlou and his brother, seeing the way they interacted, the small differences, the small mannerisms that were the same for both, like how they smiled, or held their head when they were confused.

"...And all I see is this big, round... thing that's moving towards me! How was I supposed to know what it was!" Josh laughed loudly, "I just wanted to get the heck out of there man."

Hiccup sighed, realizing he hadn't been listening. He looked up when he felt a hand on his shoulder and saw Josh sitting next to him.

"Are you okay?" the boy asked, letting his hand slip from Hiccup's shoulder.

Hiccup nodded. "I... I wasn't listening..." he admitted.

Josh smiled his slightly crooked smile. "That's okay. I can see that you have questions though. About... my arm..."

Hiccup nodded hesitantly, and Josh took his place next to Wrenlou again. "Ask me."

"Eh..." Hiccup looked down, nervously fumbling with the hem of his tunic, "did it hurt?"

"The operation?" Josh asked and when Hiccup nodded, he looked down, "I didn't feel that it was gone at first. I woke up, and it was like it was still there. They call that phantoms. It's something most, if not all amputees experience after losing a limb. It's basically the sensation of the limb that's gone, and you think it's there. So when I woke up, I thought they didn't remove it. Until I looked... of course..."

He took a deep breath. "Adapting wasn't easy. There were so many things I had to learn all over again, like eating and dressing myself. And there were so many things I would never do again, like... playing the violin. That was the hardest part. But I adapted, I got over it. I focused on the things I could still do and I focused on the things I could learn again. I've always been left handed, so that's a bonus."

"Really?" Hiccup asked, suddenly excited, "I'm left handed too! I never saw anyone who was..."

"Not many people are," Josh said, "but it's more common in twins for one to be left handed."

Hiccup sat back, pondering this information. It didn't seem to make any sense. Why would one be left handed, while the other was right handed? It was totally illogical. Not that it really mattered.

"When?" he asked, "when did you lose it?"

"Five years ago, when I was twelve," Josh answered, "although the first operation, the one that took my hand was when I was ten. So... yes, five years ago."

"It didn't change you much though," Wrenlou said, "we'd still get in trouble because of you."

Josh laughed, shaking his head at his brother. "I always got us out again!"

"Only after we were in trouble!" Wrenlou said almost pouting, "and they always blamed me after you lost your arm, because surely an amputee wouldn't do that crazy stuff!"

Josh smiled, tousling Wrenlou's hair. "I love you brother, you know that. And I always took full responsibility!"

"They always believed you did that to protect me though," Wrenlou said.

Hiccup had to force back tears while he listened to their conversation. Having a brother, a partner, some one that would be there for you no matter what, sounded so wonderful it nearly broke his heart. He wondered if his life on Berk would have been different if he had had a brother, an older brother, some one to protect him and kick Snotlout's ass when he was being mean. Would it have been different? He found it increasingly difficult to keep his tears from falling, and at one point, when Josh pulled Wrenlou in a headlock, he lost the fight.

He stood up abruptly, drawing the attention from anyone present, and before they could say anything, he turned around and ran. He ran back into the house, desperately wiping the tears from his eyes. He ran blindly though the house he didn't know, just running into a room and closing the door. He sat against it, sobbing into his hands. He didn't know how long he had been there when he heard a soft knock on the door, followed by Wrenlou's voice. He buried his face in his hands and ignored it. He wasn't sure if Wrenlou left, he didn't really care, but he nearly jumped when he heard the knock again.

He opened the door after the third knock, seeing both Josh and Wrenlou in front of the door, and a new wave of tears hit him. Before he could close the door however, both boys came in, both embracing him tightly. It didn't help with the tears, and before he knew it he was sobbing into Wrenlou's shoulder.

"It's not fair," he whispered as his sobs died down, "I want a brother too."

"We figured that was what was wrong," Josh said softly, pulling away from Hiccup, "but you know... we can be your brothers, if you want."

Hiccup looked up, first at Josh, then at Wrenlou. Both boys smiled back, their eyes sparkling in much the same way. He looked from one to the other and back, not quite believing what he just heard.

"Really?" he asked, his voice shaking slightly.

Wrenlou nodded. "Sure. You've decided to stay anyway. You can be our brother."

Josh smiled warmly. "You deserve a family."

"I... I just... I've always been alone," Hiccup mumbled, wiping his tears on his sleeve, "always."

"Well," Josh said putting his arm around Hiccup's shoulders, "you're not alone anymore. And you'll never be again."


End file.
